Potential matches may be browsing profiles on multiple online dating sites every day, so you need to spend time and effort to make yours stand out.
To be truly effective, your profile needs to do three things:
1. Grab their attention.
2. Give some information about yourself.
3. Convert the reader into a potential date.
The photographs will make or break your profile. Be sure to include a mixture of headshots, full body shots, and natural action shots. Do not take the photos yourself with the aid of a mirror, or by holding your camera or phone at a distance. These photos look terrible, and simply that you don’t have any friends.
Don’t parade around semi-nude, but make sure there are clear shots of your face and (clothed) body included, or it will look like you are trying to hide something.
Try to include natural shots of you out enjoying life, to give the impression you are fun, sociable and active.
If you do decide to stage a photoshoot to collect pictures for your profile page, don’t forget to mix up the location as well as your clothes. Six photos of you in different outfits, all featuring your bedroom wardrobe in the background look a bit desperate.
Do some research on YouTube about how to strike the most flattering pose. It’s surprising how much difference raising the camera angle, and tilting your head can make.
How long do you spend looking at a profile page before you decide whether to keep reading it? After a quick glance at your photos, a few seconds might be spent reading the first line or two, if you are lucky. Don’t waste that opportunity with an inane opener like ‘hello there’, or ‘thanks for reading this’.
Cut straight to the chase. Do you remember when the only dating support we had were the local newspaper’s lonely hearts column. Get into the mentality that you have only a few words to make the best impression. The word count on your profile page may be unlimited, but your potential match’s attention span isn’t.
It’s not just what you say that is important, it’s how you say it. That description area under your photo is your space to do what you like with. There are no hard and fast rules that say you need to write 250 words about your hobbies and pet cat.
Be bold and present yourself in a totally different way:
– Write your profile up as a series of quotes from your favourite film.
– Write a funny limerick about yourself.
– Write signs and hold them up in your photos.
– Present your profile like a Wikipedia entry, or a film star’s biography, or an ingredients list.
If you’re unsure about how well this quirky approach might work, try split testing your methods. Sign up to two free dating sites, and upload one unusual profile, and one in the usual style to see which gets the most responses.
Make it easy for the reader to make the first move, by including a clear call to action towards the end of your profile.
How will the reader feel when they’ve finished reading? Have you made it clear that you welcome pokes and messages? Do you sound approachable rather than desperate, and confident rather than self-absorbed? What will the reader want to do next?
With a little preparation you can make a profile that stands-out, leaves a good impression of you, and inspires the reader to take action.